Love Scars

Ch. 16: Daniel

Brianna still hadn't contacted me to tell me what happened with Jared, but it was easy enough to see what could have happened. Jared had been ignoring me, and I wasn't sure what to think of it all, maybe I messed up somewhere?

I couldn't worry myself over something like that when my best friend is in the hospital and I have school again today, and there's a big test. To make matters worse, I hadn't even had much time to study. Most nights I went to bed close to one in the morning, and I had to get up at about five. Driving on four hours of sleep never sounded too exciting, so I rode the bus.

On the bus, there was hardly ever any peace and quiet, making it extremely hard to study, or sleep. However, I managed to cram two weeks of material into 25 minutes, more or less.

"Did everyone study?" Mr. Wilson could tell that no one was really prepared based off their scared expressions. Some kids had already embraced the fact that they'll fail, but not me. I had some slight hope still. He passed out all the tests and cheerfully said, "good luck." The timer started, and we had 20 minutes to finish.

When did we ever go over this? I filled in a bubble on my scan-tron, then erased it. Apparently 25 minutes is not enough time to study, for anything. It was stupid of me to try and study so last minute, maybe next time I'm up so late I will study instead of letting my anxiety waste my time. 10 minutes left. I better plan my funeral for when Mom sees my score. Randomly filling in all the answers, I prayed for the best. Maybe I could retake it later, when I actually know what I'm doing? Honestly though, I probably won't ever understand half this junk. 5 minutes.

Kids around me were all furiously scribbling in the bubbles and you could see the fear in their eyes as the time dwindled down.

Three, two, one. "Tests in." I turned in my test and scrambled out the door, ready to go home. There were still few classes left, but I didn't want to sit through that hell. I was about to get to my locker when someone knocked into me and my books all fell onto the floor.

"Watch where you're going!" I turned around and my stomach dropped.

"It talks," Alex and his friends stood laughing at me. I quickly tried to pick up my papers, but he stepped on my hand, causing me to cry out. "Where do you think you're going?"

I pushed his leg away and stood up, trying to stay calm and collected. Maybe he would just leave if I don't seem scared. "Class." He slammed me into the locker behind me and my head started pounding. He winced and put his hand on the back of his head, making his friends impatient.

"Al, it's supposed to hurt him, don't pity the idiot," one of them spit.

"I'm not pitying him, my head hurts you dumb ass." I used the distraction to my advantage and ducked below his arm to escape the scene. From the pounding in my head and the dizziness, I concluded that I might have a concussion. I stumbled into my next class, plopping into the seat nearest the door.

"Daniel, you don't look so great, you should go see the nurse," the girl next to me whispered so she wouldn't bring any attention to us. I've seen her around, but we never really talked.

"I'm fi-" she touched the back of my head gingerly and I pulled away from her.

"Daniel, look at me, you're bruised pretty bad. I can see it forming from here, maybe you should grow your hair out more so next time you get in a fight you can't see that you lost."

I laughed halfheartedly. "I didn't get into a fight, I got slammed into the locker. Thanks though." She looked sympathetic towards my pain, as if she knew how I felt. Although, my head hurt too much to take much notice. My next few classes seemed to fly by, like all my time nowadays. When I finally got to the bus, I sat down and immediately felt sick.

Without the right amount of sleep, nutrients, and socialization, I always get migraines and sometimes a cold. I'm not sure why though. Today was absolutely miserable, and while Brianna is in the hospital, I'm aching on an old school bus seat, wishing to be anywhere but here.